American Indian Family Center
The goal of the American Indian Family Center is to create an Early Childhood Montessori Language Immersion Program to offer to American Indian Families living in Saint Paul and the east metro area. This grant will recruit and select candidates for each training opportunity (both the Montessori Teacher and Assistant), train the candidates in both models (Montessori and language immersion), and ultimately place the candidates in programs that are committed to offering the model for early learners. The project will train these candidates to align the curriculum methods of both approaches, participating in Montessori Training and guided in the language immersion methods. Two teacher candidates will be expected to begin and complete Montessori training.
Minnesota’s most enduring languages are in danger of disappearing. Without timely intervention, the use of Dakota and Ojibwe languages – like indigenous languages throughout the globe -- will decline to a point beyond recovery.
During the year, the project served directly three people, The Lakot elder attending the Montessori Teacher Training and two other candidates for the Montessori Assistant Training in June. One of the Assistant Candidates is currently a provider for drop in childcare for groups hosted at AIFC during the year. This will be an interesting opportunity for her to tie her newly acquired knowledge into the drop in childcare provided. The primary objective of the grant has been partially met. Three candidates were identified and trained and the most crucial piece of curriculum developed. A Lakota Children's House Language Album has been developed by the teacher candidate. A merged curriculum model was not fully completed. There are additional Montessori Teacher albums that need to be developed for a full model.